Very rarrely do I ever see such a question.  Most church based social media rationale seems to be along the lines of “should the church use social media” and the answer is “yeah,  if we want to be relevant and speak the language of your culture”.  This question asks the deeper , morer theological rationale question.

do our theological understandings and commitments in the realm of ecclesiology have anything to do with the corporate electronic practices of our church or religious body? Should they?

via New Media Project at Union Theological Seminary: Does our ‘digitology’ match our ecclesiology?.

So does the church embody its theology in the way in which is utilizes social media.  Is the prescence style reflective of an incarnate expression of one’s community’s theology?  And what does this mean in terms of the technology?

This is what we explored when I was a student at United Theological Seminary’s MA in Religious Communications program in 1990-91. It went beyond the quesiton of SHOULD WE? and asked HOW SHOULD WE?  We explored McLuhan.  We explored the history of church and communicaitons such as the move from oral to written,  and the impact of the Printing Press.  It’s more than simply “original content” plugged in to a common channel and technology.  Televsion itself began by TELEVISING radio broadcasts,  and soon discovered it could tell stories in expanded ways from the audio-only limitations.  Commerical interests found they could “IMAGE” their products to associate them with powerful narratives that capture something beyond the mere recitation of ingredients and physical properities.   What can the Church learn about dabbling and experimenting in new media,  and what new ways of “IMAGING” we can employ that is not an emotional manipulation by associating what we offer with some false effect?  What does our theology say about where we are headed;  our purpose?  This takes us far beyond “SHOULD WE”  ,  but into understanding the myriad levels of the effects and representations we put forth in these new channels?

I will be reading through the article that Jim Rice provides to begin to explore such questions re: a “Digital Ecclesiology” at http://blog.newmediaprojectatunion.org